Alex Zhang Hungtai

Alex Zhang Hungtai, better known to you as the artist formerly behind projects like Dirty Beaches and Love Theme, was last seen/heard playing saxophone in the Road House on Twin Peaks with the band Trouble.  The enigmatic and prolific artist now has a new record on the way under his own name called "Divine Weight."  Watch the video for the droney, haunting, yet somehow soothing "Pierrot" below and pre-order the album here from Non Worldwide.

Love Theme

One of my favorite artists of the last few years was the strange and lo-fi, rockabilly drone of Dirty Beaches, the project of Alex Zhang Hungtai.  That project has been defunct for a little while now, but the artist has remained busy, playing tenor sax for Trouble on "Twin Peaks" for one, and now with a new experimental and cinematic drone and electronics trio.  Love Theme make haunting stuff, and listening to "Desert Exile" is like painting a surreal night in ominous tones, driving through a dark city and observing its denizens silently through the window.  Listen below and grab the self-titled album here from Alter.

Trouble - Snake Eyes

I don't know about everyone else, but i've been enjoying the shit out of the "Twin Peaks" revival.  Truth be told, i'm kind of obsessed.  Anyway, if you've been watching, you've seen an array of different artists performing at The Bang Bang Bar, usually closing an episode out, and they've all been wonderful.  Episode 5 featured an assembled band called Trouble...and they make some of the most Lynchian music i can think of outside of Badalamenti or Roy Orbison.  And that makes sense seeing as the group consists of Lynch's son Riley, his longtime music supervisor Dean Hurley, and Incubator favorite Alex Zhang Hungtai of Dirty Beaches wailing on the tenor sax.  Listen to the marvelous and sinister "Snake Eyes" below, download it and another track here, and pre-order the 7" from Sacred Bones.

Hats off to Shawn for the heads up on this.

Destruction Unit

Here's a new one from Arizona rabble-rousers Destruction Unit from their forthcoming "Negative Feedback Resistor" LP on Sacred Bones.  "If Death Ever Slept" features an assist to the mayhem from Alex Zhang Hungtai, formerly of Dirty Beaches.  Listen below.

Dirty Beaches

Alex Zhang Hungtai's Dirty Beaches project has a new instrumental album on the horizon.  "Stateless" continues the artist's direction into barren and devastating soundscapes and will be out sometime next month on Zoo Music.  Sadly, it is to be the last Dirty Beaches album, as Hungtai has announced the project's end...and that's a real bummer.  I saw Dirty Beaches a couple of times in 2011, and for a one-man-band, he was mesmerizing.  Listen to "Displaced" below and be sure to pick up the album.

Dirty Beaches

I've been a fan of Alex Zhang Hungtai's drone-meets-rockabilly explorations for a few years now.  The man knows how to weave heartache and unease into these little twisted and echoed bursts or sprawls of sound.  Earlier this week, "Neon Gods of Lost Youth," an EP of unreleased material surfaced to great acclaim...in my house at least.  Take a listen to "Neon God and Funeral Strippers" below.  It sounds like following a faint glow into a dark tunnel that ultimately leads you...somewhere.  Get the EP here.

New Dirty Beaches

Dirty Beaches (Alex Zhang Hungtai) has been one of our favorite artists to emerge over the last couple of years.  His stark take on rockabilly and forays into almost spooky instrumental territory paint a rich tapestry that would be perfect as a score to a David Lynch movie.  A double album, "Drifters/Love Is The Devil" is due in May from Zoo Music, but listen to the instrumental dirge that is the title track below.